1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a rope or cord installation on a helicopter making it possible to attach, within a helicopter, at least one rope or cord for lowering rapid intervention personnel to the ground from the said helicopter, when the latter is in stationary flight at a limited altitude close to the length of said rope or ropes.
When it is necessary to bring intervention personnel into a field of hostile action preventing the landing of a helicopter or the stationary flight thereof in the immediate vicinity of the ground, it is sometimes necessary to make use of a rope installation on the said helicopter. This installation enables intervention personnel to slide to the ground from a helicopter in stationary flight at an altitude of approximately 30 m above the ground. Such an operation can in particular be necessary for intervening on a burning building, a group of terrorists, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art including information disclosed under 37 C.F.R. .sctn..sctn. 1.97-1.99 .
The installation used for this purpose up to now generally comprises a rigid transverse beam fixed to the helicopter floor and on which are fixed in non-releasable manner ropes along which the intervention personnel, equipped with a special apparatus, can slide to the ground.
The helicopter is particularly vulnerable when in stationary flight during the lowering of the intervention personnel. It is therefore desirable that it can move away as rapidly as possible from the intervention zone as soon as the personnel have been lowered. However, this rapid moving away is made difficult by the non-releasable ropes which hang below the helicopter and which may become entangled in obstacles projecting from the ground (poles, electric wires, cranes) or in the rotors of the helicopter, particularly in the rear rotor.